The A, B and sort of C post

 How the hell did it get to be November 1? That's just nuts...

Anyway, since I was foolish enough a couple of weeks back to mention going through the alphabet with posts, I thought I should put my letters where my mouth was as part of the #ConfinedAToZchallenge.

A is for Apple...

Autumn is soup making weather and the other day I made Curried Apple, Carrot and Coconut Soup, which was a nice variation on one of my winter stalwarts which is Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup.

Peel and chop two Granny Smith apples, three medium carrots, three celery stalks, two medium potatoes and half a diced onion. Sweat them off for around 5-8 minutes in a bit of olive oil. 

Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons of curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and 1 teaspoon of salt, cook for two minutes and add one 14oz can of coconut milk and 500ml of veg stock. Simmer for about 20 minutes until the veg is soft.

Whizz it all up until it's all creamy, smooth and delicious. If you like, add a squeeze of lime juice to your bowl when your serving.

This was the first time I've made this particular soup and it turned out pretty well. The only thing I'd say is that it was a bit too unctuous, but I think that is because I only had one very scabby piece of celery. I think if I'd had the three stalks the recipe called for, that would have given it just a little more edge. But still, I'd definitely make it again.

B is for Blueberries

We are having a new roof put on at the moment because it was in shit condition so we're living with the joyful sound of nail guns and compressor noise just now. While this was an unbudgeted expense (sigh), one small expense I do know is worth its weight in gold is keeping trades folk fed and watered. There is coffee aplenty and I made some fresh Blueberry Muffins this morning. A cheap but effective greasing of the wheels of industry.

C is for Christmas come early (told you this one was a bit of a cheat!)

Our back fence neighbour called this morning to say he had something for us. The something turned out to be two fresh salmon, which he'd just caught a couple of hours previously - he'd been out fishing in one of the local rivers at 6.30 am. And he'd gone to the trouble of gutting them for us, which was very thoughtful. All in all, this was delightfully unexpected so I'm considering it an early Christmas gift because at the moment you have to cheer yourself up any way you can and it meant I didn't have to wait until I got to 'S' to post about it! 

The husband was already halfway through cutting one of them up when I thought to take this photo, but imagine two fishes on this little dishy.

We've got six good sized salmon steaks out of them, and we'll probably barbeque tonight.

Anyway, that's A, B and C. Now I just have to think about D.

I hope everyone is hanging on in there as we start November. And I say again, November 1 - when the hell did that happen!